The present invention relates to crop pick-ups and more specifically relates to such pick-ups which include stub augers at its opposite sides for narrowing the flow of crop lifted by the pick-up tine reel.
In a known crop pickup which is used to lift windrowed crop into the baling chamber of a baler, the pick-up is wider than the width of the baling chamber. In order to narrow the windrow of crop to the width of the baling chamber, right- and left-hand stub augers are mounted at the opposite sides of the pick-up in co-axial relationship to feeder teeth located in the center region between the stub augers, the augers operating to converge the crop toward the center of the baler some distance past the inside edge of the opposite walls of the baling chamber. A tooth stripper assembly is mounted in the region between the stub augers for stripping crop from the feeder teeth. The augers normally feed material near the outside diameter of the flighting, so that the transition of material to the outside diameter of the rotating tines is usually quite an easy one. If however, the crop flow is interrupted, as when a bale doesn't start to turn, for example, the auger will be rotating past crop which is not moving into the bale chamber. If the crop begins to accumulate between the flights of the auger, crop will become wedged as the flighting pushes the crop against the feeder teeth stripper assembly. This wedging can result in the pick-up becoming plugged and/or in damage to the pick-up. Furthermore, when the pick-up becomes plugged, the operator is forced to expend time and effort to remove the crop material so as to unplug the pick-up.